Butterfly Cauldron
Saturday, March 01, 2008
I write novels
So, today I ventured out into The World on a weekend. Shocking.
I left my house because I was going to kill kittens if I didn't. They're nuts. They were running around like crazy things, knocking shit over. Well...they broke a vase that I had made all by myself! It was painted and pretty and I loved it and they destroyed it. So, I picked up the pieces, whipped some children and packed up the computer and left before I killed them.
So, I'm currently at one of many CC's Coffee Houses taking advantage of the Not My House location and the free internet to work on my novel.
At the moment, I'm calling it All The Damned Vampires. It's a working title, since I have NO idea what to really name it and well...there are lots of Vampires in it, so. Plus, Lost Boys reference. Go 80's childhood!
I have nine chapters done (first drafts only, of course) but I only have 20,353 words! That's not even half a NaNo Novel! I've been working on this thing off and one for YEARS and that's all I've got?? I'm stunned. I could have sworn I had much, much more done :( My chapters are only averaging about 2,261 words each which comes out to about 7 or 8 pages. Not so bad, really, but....I have to keep reminding myself THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT. The important thing on this go through to do is get the story down on paper. Once the story is down, I can recruit myself some readers to give it a look-see and tell me where they think things need to be stregthened. (I, of course, reserve the right to ignore them completely. But it does help.)
And, OK. I write strangely. Like, right now, I've got the ending done. I'm taken down my Big Bad, reclaimed my Blonde Vampire's soul and done a little wrap-up chapter suggesting what's gonna happen in the next book. Go me. I've also got the introduction done. Introduced my heroine, outlined a bit of her powers, given some of her backstory, had her get in her first fight. Go Me. Got a very moving scene with her at her best friend's grave. Got the piece's major sex scene done (and ya know, THAT chapter is almost 5,000 words. I do good smut.) Which leaves me with. . .the entire middle of the novel to write. So, ya know. It's not like I don't have room or ideas for more :) I'm just....I thought I'd gotten much much more done. *pout* Oh well.
I mean, I've already written the Bad Guy Take Down...and haven't even introduced her yet! See? Weird. So.
What I need to do now is make a list of all the big scenes that need to get written. I need to have some roadmap of what needs to be done to get this thing to where it needs to be. And getting out of the house really helps me. I can focus better. No kittens to distract me. No phone to ring. No television to distract me. Good good.
I'm thinking of putting out a request on the Baton Rouge LJ community for any other writers who want to form a Meet Weekly to Write Club. Hrm.....
Also, I need to do a personal essay thing for this Call for Papers I found. Busy busy busy.
I left my house because I was going to kill kittens if I didn't. They're nuts. They were running around like crazy things, knocking shit over. Well...they broke a vase that I had made all by myself! It was painted and pretty and I loved it and they destroyed it. So, I picked up the pieces, whipped some children and packed up the computer and left before I killed them.
So, I'm currently at one of many CC's Coffee Houses taking advantage of the Not My House location and the free internet to work on my novel.
At the moment, I'm calling it All The Damned Vampires. It's a working title, since I have NO idea what to really name it and well...there are lots of Vampires in it, so. Plus, Lost Boys reference. Go 80's childhood!
I have nine chapters done (first drafts only, of course) but I only have 20,353 words! That's not even half a NaNo Novel! I've been working on this thing off and one for YEARS and that's all I've got?? I'm stunned. I could have sworn I had much, much more done :( My chapters are only averaging about 2,261 words each which comes out to about 7 or 8 pages. Not so bad, really, but....I have to keep reminding myself THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT. The important thing on this go through to do is get the story down on paper. Once the story is down, I can recruit myself some readers to give it a look-see and tell me where they think things need to be stregthened. (I, of course, reserve the right to ignore them completely. But it does help.)
And, OK. I write strangely. Like, right now, I've got the ending done. I'm taken down my Big Bad, reclaimed my Blonde Vampire's soul and done a little wrap-up chapter suggesting what's gonna happen in the next book. Go me. I've also got the introduction done. Introduced my heroine, outlined a bit of her powers, given some of her backstory, had her get in her first fight. Go Me. Got a very moving scene with her at her best friend's grave. Got the piece's major sex scene done (and ya know, THAT chapter is almost 5,000 words. I do good smut.) Which leaves me with. . .the entire middle of the novel to write. So, ya know. It's not like I don't have room or ideas for more :) I'm just....I thought I'd gotten much much more done. *pout* Oh well.
I mean, I've already written the Bad Guy Take Down...and haven't even introduced her yet! See? Weird. So.
What I need to do now is make a list of all the big scenes that need to get written. I need to have some roadmap of what needs to be done to get this thing to where it needs to be. And getting out of the house really helps me. I can focus better. No kittens to distract me. No phone to ring. No television to distract me. Good good.
I'm thinking of putting out a request on the Baton Rouge LJ community for any other writers who want to form a Meet Weekly to Write Club. Hrm.....
Also, I need to do a personal essay thing for this Call for Papers I found. Busy busy busy.
5 Comments:
You are terribly clever *swoon*
I think writing the introduction and the ending and a couple major points along the way's a really good way to write something large - you know where the story's going, you just need to get there.
Keep going, baby, and *try* not to kill the children before Other Mummy at least meets them ;) xx
I never got very far in writing novels because, once I knew the ending, I had zero interest in telling anyone else how the characters got from the beginning to the end.
I also tried just writing flat out, but ended up with pages of dialogue of what is supposed to be a screenplay. While I did make the rare note in the margin to explain some reasoning, some lines are so clever, I have no idea what I meant.
Weird will win out; most people get stuck on the beginning, end or on wrapping things up, like the movie where Michael Douglas can't stop writing. You've got the major steps, and need to bridge the gaps between them.
You do indeed do good smut. Whoo-hoo!
I don't think you write strangely, at all. Linear writing is over-rated, be it writing the opening scene or the introduction first. My preferred creative writing has been temporarily pushed to the back-burners by religion papers, but people telling me how to write a paper pisses me off just as much.
I hate when I realize that I have not, in fact, written nearly as much as I think that I have. The poor novel I've been babying now has an ending, and an opening scene, and several flashbacks. I think I've written drafts of short stories longer than this.
I miss creative writing classes -- good discipline (which I don't have otherwise). And math classes, because for some reason, mathematics lectures put me in a creative writing mood.
Good luck!
If you've chosen to live with wild cats you can't expect them to behave like scouts. :-)
All I find today is writers, writers, writers. Is this some kind of a message to me? I was writing night and day before meeting my husband and now I'm just a bitter housewife. ;-)
I know. I love my baby cats like crazy. And I like that they're kinda crazy. I just don't like it all the time. :)
And yes. Yes, it is a sign from the universe for you to pick up paper and pen and get to writing too. I have this on good authority, since the Universe and I talk quite often.
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